Adam Cary-Swanson
Nathan Grawe
IDSC121
November 23, 2025
Alumni Informational Interview Reflection
For my informational interview, I got the opportunity to speak with David Joo, cofounder
of Neuroaide, who was also a speaker at the week nine alumni talk. I was a bit intimidated seeing
as I had never done a formal interview as an interviewer before but David was a very laid back
guy and created a very comfortable and casual atmosphere that made the process much easier.
I began by asking a few questions about his time at Carleton College. David told me that
his grades at Carleton were not very good, to which I assumed he was overexaggerating. He then
proceeded to pull out his phone and look back at his transcript (to which I’m surprised he still
has access to) and read off the number of C’s he received and boasted about the A he got in a
trumpet class. Surprisingly enough, David was a biology major, which is a bit unusual for an
entrepreneur, so I asked him about how he made the transition from biology to entrepreneurship.
He told me that though he had majored in biology, out of convenience and a reasonable salary he
decided to lean into finance. He began his work at ABN AMRO Bank N.V where he worked for
roughly four years and then transitioned to Credit Suisse and then later Goldman Sachs.
One of the outstanding characteristics that I noticed about David is how down to Earth he
was when talking about his work history. David gave me a glimpse into what the average week
looked like for him. He stated that he would work roughly seventy hours a week, and that what
made him stand out from others is his drive to not let anyone outperform him. At the beginning
of his finance career, he was unfamiliar with a lot of tools that he needed to complete tasks, yet
he was able to teach himself through sheer determination, which is impressive in itself
considering the fact that this was during the early years of the internet being accessible.
Delving more into David’s connection to entrepreneurship, he joined the entrepreneurship
club by chance. One of his friends wanted to start a project which is now known as Co by
KnowRe and its aim was to create individualized learning curriculums for young adolescents.
This was an interesting project for David because he had no familiarity with the education
community. Yet he approached this with the same willingness as he did with finance, long hours
and having booths at academic fairs, yet this paid off and teachers and other education businesses
began to notice what they were doing. From there David realized that he would rather be an
investor/founder than creating the ideas and trying to build something from the ground up.
I asked David about advice for going into the job market, seeing as I am now in my
senior year of college and relate a lot to his upbringing and college experience. He told me he
wished he had a better answer but all he could think of was to be authentic. Although this may
not be the ideal piece of advice someone would want to hear from a successful entrepreneur, I
think what he said was perfectly sound. We live in a world where the job market is hard to break
into, and to which no piece of advice provides a 100% effective solution. Education itself is not a
guarantee of success, it's a tool that can provide you with skills for the chance to find greater
success.
I find myself having a lot of anxiety when it comes to thinking about the future and what
that beholds. I am a mathematics major but at the same time I do not want that major to restrict
me to a certain career that I have yet to know if I’ll even enjoy considering that I never acquired
any math related internships during my time at Carleton. Being able to talk with David helped
me understand that the only person restricting me to a specific career of work is myself. He put it
best by saying it's not what you know, it's who you know. It’s evident that not every person who
wants to become an entrepreneur will become successful. David put it well in cut throat terms by
saying ideas for a business are useless in itself, what it takes is to actually be committed and be
able to act on that idea. When you act, it is also important to put 100% effort into what you’re
doing or else it will already be a failure. I can get behind this because when I did an entrepreneur
competition at Carleton I was unsuccessful as a result of not putting enough time and effort into
the project.
This interview process was a great opportunity to talk with an alum about their time at
Carleton as well as their career path. I feel as if I gained a new and refreshing perspective on the
job market and what sort of mentality I should have post-graduation from Carleton. I am excited
about what the future holds for me and Carleton has been a big part of my development.
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